Boulderers

Climbing magazine's in-depth profiles and interviews reveal the stories behind bouldering's most intriguing people: the stars of the sport and the lesser-known local heroes. We ask boulderers how they got started, what motivates them, and how they get better and stronger.

As a climber, it’s easy to watch American Ninja Warrior and say, “I could do that.” The obstacle course is full of things to be campused, jumped across, or balanced on. It seems designed for our skill set, with most objectives requiring a vice grip and unlimited pull-up strength. Competitive boulderer Meagan Martin wasn’t sure she could cruise the course when she was invited to audition by the show’s producers, but she did think it would be a fun challenge. She went on to become the first woman to finish the Denver qualifying course and the Jumping Spider obstacle in finals. We spoke to Martin about her experience.

Never a fan of guidebooks, I’ve long had a “just pick a route that looks good and climb“ mentality. “It’s supposed to be an adventure!“ I’d tell myself. Until one fateful day at Colorado‘s Eldorado Canyon.

By Cedar Wright - Photos by Dean Fidelman - The Stone Monkeys are a slightly more inclusive, modern-day equivalent of the “Stonemasters,” the amorphous band of Valley hardmen who pushed the limits of climbing in the 1970s and ‘80s. However, to be a Stone Monkey, you don’t have to climb hard or be famous (though quite a few Monkeys fit this bill).

By Matt Samet, Kenneth Long, Fitz Cahall, Majka Burhardt, and Chad Shepard - We’ve gathered five essays linked by a common thread: dark manifestations of the climber mind because many climbers face these issues, but cowed by the cacophony of the dirtbag-chic, free-wheelin’ climbing community, silence themselves.

I climbed a desert tower, Ancient Art. I got close to the top, and it has this sidewalk that you have to cross and you have to end up on this weird formation. I got across the sidewalk part, and it started raining and storming. I had never been in that kind of situation. And it was surprising to me that so many people go through that, and they really enjoy that, I think. And I was just really terrified.

When I hang out with other pro climbing photographers, we don’t talk about things like f/stops, shutter speeds, or the newest and lightest camera body. Catching up over drinks by an open fire at Indian Creek or at some lame industry party at the Salt Lake trade show, we talk shit. Sometimes literally. This is not a story about how professional climbing photographers capture the ultimate climbing moment. These are our tales of comedy and peril—and shit.

Corey Rich's storytelling passion and keen eye—and a dose of good luck—have turned him into one of the most successful rock climbing and mountaineering photographers in the outdoor industry. As a partner of the prolific Aurora stock agency, his business skill and savvy are almost as impressive as his imagery. Rich, 35, has a down-to-earth persona that belies his success.

Dean Fidelman, 54, grew up in L.A., learned to climb at age 15, and in the 1970s became a member—and the unofficial team photographer—of the Stonemasters. His black-and-white imagery of Bachar, Hill, Long, Sorenson, Yablonski, and the rest of that hardcore SoCal group might be the most celebrated climbing action-portraiture ever done.

With user-friendly, DIY websites, anyone can run a rock climbing blog. But few update their blogs several times daily—and attract more than 2,500 unique visitors per day. Brian Runnells, aka the Climbing Narcissist, is one of those few. The Wisconsin native created Climbingnarc.com about four years ago, and he now spends 10 to 20 hours a week posting competition results, news of hard ascents around the world, videos, and debates over controversial topics.

Adam Henry, 39, one of the Southeast’s leading access and new-route advocates, was born in Houston to an engineer father who passed away when Henry was 9. His mother did whatever was necessary to keep life comfortable, despite money struggles. At 14, Henry worked 12-hour days in construction — earning $20 a day — to help pay the bills. From age 5 to 18, Henry played football, leaving the sport after he discovered climbing at the Palisades, Alabama.

I met up with Kasia Pietras, who won the 2009 Triple Crown Open Women’s overall title. The interview took place at Kasia’s workplace, the Tennessee Bouldering Authority (www.tbagym.com), a southeastern bouldering institution where several of the regions strongest rock rats train. Pietras grew up in Chicago and regularly drove seven hours to Kentucky, to sport climb in the Red River Gorge. Before the recorder began, she explained that she’s currently attending the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, but plans to start attending massage therapy school in the fall.

At 23 years old Gabriel Moch has reached an impressive level as the second Latin American climber to send The Mandala (V12) at the Buttermilk Boulders, near Bishop California. Moch was born in Guatemala, raised in Brazil and began climbing at the age of ripe age 16. After only two years on the rock he sent Morfina (5.13a) at Cerra do Cipo, in Brazil and helped develop a bouldering area near Sao Paulo called Valinhos with over 300 problems varying from V0-V10 where he made the first ascent of many of them.

By Caroline Treadway (aka C-Note) courtesy of pimpinandcrimpin.com - Phil Schaal’s been killing it recently. In the past year alone, this Connecticut climber has ticked 15 V13s, including some rare repeats of hard East Coast lines The Book of Bitter Aspects (V13) in Bradley, Conn., Agent Orange (V13) in the Gunks, and the Chelsea Smile (V13), Ty Landman’s new sit start to Divine Providence in Lincoln Woods.

When I first met Chris Webb Parsons, he was just some random climber around a campfire in Australia. It was 2007, and I was camping alone amongst the kangaroos, wallabies, and kookaburras at Stapleton Campground, in the Grampians. Eating sardines in the dark one night, Chris and his mates invited me over to their circle.

Interviews by Matt Samet - “Sleep came easily before the redpoint,” says Shawn Diamond, 26, of his December 28 FA of the hyper-perilous Luminance (V11), a 16-move highball at the Buttermilk, California. “But I could hardly close my eyes the night after, from the adrenaline.” Diamond, a Cali native now in med school at the University of Cornell Weill Medical College in New York City, was spotted (bravely) by Sara Orens and Walker Emerson, the latter tying into an anchor, to keep him and Diamond from plunging 40 feet off the downsloping ledge below the problem.

Compiled by Abbey Smith - The hard-climbing icon Dave Graham, 26, is manic, tweaky, and opinionated. He’s also best understood in person and in his element - with friends and at the rocks, where you’ll find him in a hoody and sneakers, waving his gangly arms to pantomime Beta.

Interview by Justin Roth - On January 18, 2008, Lisa Rands nabbed the first female ascent of The Mandala (V12; FA Chris Sharma, 2000), in Bishop, California. The tall, overhung prow was for decades dismissed as too futuristic and to this day remains one of the most coveted and storied problems in American bouldering.

In 1975, Jim Holloway, 6' 4" and with cable for tendons, shoed up beneath Cloud Shadow Wall, above Boulder, Colorado. His project lay on the convex east end of the sandstone face. Holloway fished his right hand into a fingertip undercling, crimped the left on a layaway, and pulled on.

Imagine an artificial boulder the size of a gigantic mushroom parked in the middle of Vail village, Colorado. Now, imagine a team of climbers ranging from 12 to 24 years old gathered in record high temperatures to challenge each other for a $16,000 overall purse. Event Gallery by Devaki Murch, Cody Blair, and Devin Balet